Incumbents Linda Massey, Eddie Boswell, and Tom Manning and challengers Ann Vaughan, Mark Hopp and David Smith told voters why they should serve on the Alamance County Board of Commissioners for the next four years during a candidates’ forum Monday night.

The six candidates are vying for three commissioners’ seats on the board. One-stop early voting begins on Thursday. The forum was held at the Paramount Theater in downtown Burlington. It was sponsored by the Times-News and radio station WPCM.

The topics discussed during the forum included education, taxes, mental health, economic development, local property revaluations, and paying Sheriff Terry Johnson’s legal fees regarding his defense against the Justice Department.

Smith, a Republican, said he would serve only one term if elected to the board. Smith, who retired after a career as an AlamanceCounty attorney and manager, said he would only serve one term because he didn’t want the decisions he made while in office to be influenced by a desire to be reelected.

Smith said he wants to see the Alamance-Burlington School System’s teacher supplement pay increased from 8 percent to 9 percent in fiscal 2013-14.

Vaughan, a Democrat who served as a commissioner from 2006-10, said she also wants to see an increase in teacher supplement pay next fiscal year. Vaughan said she believes the county is doing a poor job retaining its best teachers, losing them to Orange and Guilford counties.

Hopp, a Republican, said ABSS should work to reduce administrative costs and try and reduce regulations to become more efficient. This marks Hopp’s first run for office. He is a physical therapy assistant with Caresouth Home Health.

Boswell, a Democrat, and Manning, a Republican, said during the forum they support a proposed quarter-cent sales tax on the November ballot because it would allow the county to purchase land and create infrastructure for economic development and help pay for bonds to fund a proposed AlamanceCommunity College tech center.

Boswell is owner of Boswell Realty and Construction, while Manning is a banker with Randolph Bank.

Vaughan said while she would support a quarter-cents sales tax increase she would not support a property tax rate increase.

“We are in a recession and the one thing you cannot do is raise taxes in a recession,” Vaughan said.

Smith said he plans to keep his “mind open” when it comes to raising county taxes in the future. Smith said he prefers not to raise taxes to balance future budgets, opting to cut spending first.

“No, I will not vote to raise taxes,” Hopp said when asked if he would vote to raise property or sales taxes.

Hopp said the last thing people need to do is spend more of their income on taxes during current economic conditions.

SEVERAL OF THE candidates, including Smith, Manning, and Linda Massey, a Democrat, said they support Sheriff Terry Johnson’s defense against the Justice Department allegations that his department unlawfully targets Latinos.

“I support the sheriff and I support the county paying for his legal fees,” Smith said.

Hopp said he believes the DOJ’s report is politically motivated while Vaughan said she believes Johnson should negotiate with DOJ officials to resolve the dispute. Boswell said he doesn’t believe Johnson and his department is profiling Latinos.

All of the candidates agreed that the county needs to focus on economic development. Hopp said he does not support incentives.

Massey said she supports the county using incentives to promote economic growth. Massey is retired from the Orange County Health Department.

Massey and the other candidates said they believe the county’s reevaluation problems from 2008 are being resolved. Massey said there have been 17,000 appeals filed in the county regarding the reevaluation.

Boswell and Manning said future county reevaluations should be done in-house to eliminate the confusion created in 2008.

The candidates also said the county should continue to properly fund the county’s mental health needs. The Alamance-Caswell Local Management Entity was dissolved over the past year and Cardinal Innovations is now overseeing the county’s mental health service needs.

Massey said the county should monitor closely how Cardinal manages the county’s services to ensure that care is adequately provided.